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Mechelle VoepelESPN.com
Duke’s women’s basketball loved Kara Lawson years ago. In the late 1990s, the school was in a recruiting battle for the Readiness Guard. Her mother, valuing Duke’s academic reputation, favored the Blue Devils. Lawson favored Tennessee. But the Lady Vols weren’t sure they would catch her.
As Tennessee assistant (and later head coach) Holly Warlick recounts, after a visit to Knoxville, Lawson’s flight home was delayed. With time to kill, she called Pat Summitt and Warlick to continue talking. It further cemented the bond Lawson already had with the Lady Vols staff, and she went to Tennessee.
Two decades later, Duke’s blue is his color. The school announced Saturday that Lawson would take over the program. Duke had the expectation he had hoped for: After his days in college and the WNBA, his broadcast job, and his stint as an NBA assistant with the Boston Celtics, Lawson is a household name with a highly respected knowledge of basketball.
But with little overall training experience, and none in the college game, Lawson will be looking to catch up quickly, something he has a reputation for doing. What should be your highest priorities?
Picking his cane
It is vitally important that all coaches surround themselves with the right people, but this is especially crucial for someone in Lawson’s position. She played for one of the best training legends at Summitt, was a professional and Olympic player, and then dissected the sport as an analyst for many years. She knows X and O, and how a program is supposed to run. But now she has to be the boss, which means being aware of everything, but also knowing that not everything can be done. You have to delegate wisely.
She is not in the position of having a staff to move in with her, so she has a lot to decide about the staff. Will she retain former coach Joanne P. McCallie’s staff? Among McCallie’s three assistants, none had been in their current jobs prior to 2016. Wanisha Smith is a former Duke player, while Jim Corrigan played for Duke’s men.
Will Lawson take a look at Lady Vol’s old training tree? Maybe someone like former Kentucky teammate and current associate head coach Kyra Elzy, who played in Tennessee from 1996 to 2001? Elzy is a top-tier recruiter with 18 years of experience as an assistant in Western Kentucky, Kansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
For that matter, could Lawson be interested in bringing in his former coach Warlick, who was so successful as Summitt’s assistant principal for so long? Warlick, who was fired by Tennessee as head coach in 2019, said that if Lawson called, he would go to Duke as an assistant. But he knows that many things will be spinning in Lawson’s mind as he makes these decisions, and he offers some friendly advice.
“It’s not just basketball, of course; there are a lot of things you have to deal with as a head coach,” Warlick said. “You know your strengths, but what do you need to improve? And you have to learn to trust. You have to get people who want to be part of your program. They don’t want your job, they just want to help you. Their staff is a great key to what they will be able to do. do “.
Returning to true elite recruitment
Under Gail Goestenkors, the Blue Devils greatly expanded their recruiting level starting in the mid-1990s, and built where they could go after the best players available. That continued under McCallie for several years, but Duke has fallen a bit on that score.
Lawson was a strong student who had a professional focus on school and basketball while in Tennessee. It can relate well to the high-level academic achievement that Duke will seek. But any coach will tell you that now is a different world with young people and how you connect with them. Once again, Lawson has been around the sport as a broadcaster, as far as he knows, but he will have to be closer to recruiting and then develop and nurture those players.
Connecting with the fan base
Many Duke fans were interested in seeing the Goestenkors return, and not just because of the success he had with the Blue Devils from 1992 to 2007. They want to feel that kind of excitement and closeness to the show they felt during their time there again. .
That buzz decreased in recent years as the results did, and Duke’s attendance decreased with it. That’s something Lawson must look to get back. Cameron Indoor Stadium may be one of the most incredible sports stadiums imaginable for women’s basketball, as well as for men’s play. It happened before and it can happen again.
It will require winning results, of course, but Lawson will also connect with the fan base and make them feel a part of the show. Lawson’s personality may seem extremely serious, and she may need to make herself more accessible to people who really want to meet her. This requires work and commitment time.
Summitt was a teacher at this; She had charisma, but she also dedicated herself to connecting with people. No one can be a replica of Summitt. But Lawson can consider how much Summitt gave this part of the job as a great inspiration.
“To get her show where she wants it to go,” said Warlick, “Kara is going to have to spend a lot of time in the community. And get that support.”
Turn Duke-Carolina into a real rivalry again
It’s not just Duke’s faithful who want the North Carolina showdown to really mean something new. Almost anyone who watches women’s basketball wants that. It’s great for sports: a fierce rivalry between programs eight miles away.
That’s not overlooking the other team in Triangle, NC State, which has been the best of the three shows in recent years and won the ACC tournament title last season. The Blue Devils-Wolfpack and Tar Heels-Wolfpack clashes should also be a big problem.
But with North Carolina also under fairly new leadership, Courtney Banghart took over ahead of the 2019-20 season, it’s the perfect time to start a new era of rivalry.
One of the funniest parts of Duke vs. UNC at the height of that rivalry on the women’s side was that the teams really didn’t care about each other. There was a crackling tension with Goestenkors and Sylvia Hatchell on the bench and so many great players, many of whom entered the WNBA, passing through Durham and Chapel Hill.
Lawson knows rivalries. As a player, she was part of the best player in the history of women’s basketball: UConn vs. Tennessee. That became so intense partly because both shows pursued some of the same talents, but also because they brought out the best in each other’s competitiveness.
Make the Blue Devils a fun team to watch
Goestenkors’ Duke teams at their best were known for a crisp offense that was a pleasure to watch. Yes, his Blue Devils fought back, but they also moved the ball and shot well. They had the kind of offense that not only attracted fans, but helped Duke become a national contender who could compete with players like UConn and Tennessee.
McCallie’s teams were not known for their offense; they had more of a routine style. That had its effectiveness, too, but eventually Duke fell back as a national power.
Lawson played for the coach who emphasized defense and rebounding at Summitt, but the vastness of his experience should be a real strength in the way he develops Duke’s style.
“She has played on a lot of different systems and had experience with a lot of different coaches,” said Seattle Storm guard Sue Bird, who played Lawson in college and the WNBA, and with her on the national team for U.S. “What I’ve found is that you just take a little bit of all those coaches. Because you have to play with the style, you know what works, what doesn’t work. And you can easily convey that. Kara is a guard point, she has that mindset.
“In fact, I think being an announcer for all these years is not enough talk. When you are an announcer, you are exposed to a lot of things, you are in shooting situations, you can listen to different coaches and be constantly analyzing the game as a coach.
“I think one of the most difficult things for a head coach is to submit, but Kara has already experienced it a bit as an assistant to the Celtics.”
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